Collaboration is a Beautiful Thing. :)

I love my husband. I don't talk about him enough, mostly because I know it embarrasses him a little bit, but sometimes I just can't help it. Today is one of those days. ;-)

My hubby & I are a great team. This is something we knew before we got married (it might have had something to do with the decision to marry....lol), but has only improved and frankly, gotten cooler since then. I love working with him. We have always been able to work together well and today was no exception.

For those of you who don't know, my husband is a musician. Not in the rock band type way, but in a more legitimate sense of the word (legitimate as in classical, not to imply that rock is illegitimate...). He plays the french horn primarily and works in orchestras and film music. He also does engineering (the dude behind the controls) for a lot of recording projects. One of the projects he works on semi-regularly is for a film composer collective in LA. They had him record some string music today for a movie and I got to take some shots while he was working! This is especially cool for me because I'm getting to help him as he puts together his website and advertising info for SC Sound Labs - his recording/engineering/mixing company. Here's a sneak peak!

Hard at work...



The session...



All the gear is sorta cool looking. I love this mics...



One of the composers conducting the strings:



Getting set for the next cue - you can see part of the movie running on the screen next to him.



I mostly just liked this angle a lot. I like watching the sound waves come up on the computer screen while they're recording.



There are a few more, but you'll have to wait till the debut of the website to see that. ;-) I'll be sure to post up info as soon as that goes live. In the meantime, if you or someone you know needs recording work done, feel free to contact my husband at: preston.shepard@gmail.com. He works with all types of groups, so hit him up if you have questions.

On a side note, I'd like to thank all of you who have been praying for me and keeping me in your thoughts lately during my relapse with Hashimoto's Disease. I made a choice early on that this disease, though it effects my life, it will NOT define me. I push through the rough stuff and live my life anyway. I know I have to take care of myself and be better at that, but I'm pulling through. I am pulling out of the worst of this relapse, which has been longer than most, but it's improving. Thanks again to all of you - I really really really appreciate it.

Blessings,
~Brienne

Video Fab-ness

I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Well, it's not so secret, but it's not so public either. I guess it is now... ;-)




During this past weekend shooting Joel & Rebecca's beautiful day, I brought along my assistant/album designer Sandra and had her shoot some video. Things are changing, upgrading, and, in my opinion, just generally getting freakin' awesome around here, so I wanted to take things up a notch or two. Some of you might say I'm "going all David Jay" and you might be partly right! I'm putting together a promo video (coming soon), that shows my potential and future clients a little more of how I work - you'll actually get to watch me shooting! I'll also be including interviews from past clients, and show the images I'm shooting while you watch me in action.




I'm not really one of those "keep the cards close" kind of girls, so I like to be as open, honest, and available as possible. I know that a lot of people (photographers included) are interested in how I work, so I sincerely hope that this is a helpful tool for my clients and fellow photographers - or at least a fun way to spy. :-) Keep watching here on the blog for when I post it up! It'll be going on my website as well.

Ooh, AND I upgraded to the D300. I was going to make a whole huge blog about it, but thought better of it. I did have to throw this shot in though. ;-) Brian Black agreed to shoot 2nd with me this past weekend (he shot all three of these images) and was showing his jealous side.... I LOVE what this camera can do. Next on the horizon? A D3. Mmmmmm....

Joel & Rebecca's Wedding!

I have been looking forward to this wedding for a long time and definitely wasn't disppointed! Some of you may remember Joel & Rebecca from their awesome engagement shoot a few months ago, but if you didn't see that, let me refresh you!

Joel & Rebecca are a pair of incredibly sweet and talented people. They are both musicians (and let me tell you, it runs in the family!) and both come from really strong, loving families. It was really a fantastic day! If you want to see the slideshow, *click here* .

Here are some of my favorite shots!







The flower girl before she put on her dress -- too adorable!









I was inspired by Grace Ormonde's Wedding Style magazine for this one. ;-)













Best wishes to the Bride & Groom - enjoy Hawaii for the Honeymoon!

~Brienne

Relapse.

**DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT A DOCTOR NOR DO I PROFESS TO BE ONE. The views expressed below are based off of personal research and experience, but PLEASE seek treatment from a professional if you suffer from medical conditions - related or otherwise **


I debated about blogging on this, but since I'm trying to do my best to fairly and accurately represent myself on my blog, I thought I had better write about THIS part of my life too.




I alluded to it in my last post, but I have a condition known as Hashimoto's Disease. I haven't really ever talked about it on here, but it's worth throwing it out into cyberspace. Maybe someone will get help and treatment! Hastimotos' is basically an autoimmune disease (like MS or Lupus or Grave's Disease) with a few defining characteristics - namely that it starts by attacking the thyroid gland (a small little butterfly shaped gland in the neck). Autoimmune pretty much means that the body is confused and begins attacking itself like it would attack a parasite, virus, or bacteria.

Unfortunately, I have to fight this on a day to day basis. I'm getting good treatment and there are safeguards in place should it get worse, but on days like today (and weeks like this past week), it's hard. I'm officially in "relapse" which tends to happen a couple times a year. I do pretty well during the rest of the time - much better than I ever did before - but it's hard when all the sypmtoms come crashing back full force (and then some). I'm struggling and could definitely use prayer (esp. to get thru my wedding this weekend!), but I know that I'll pull through it again.

Most people aren't even aware of what the thyroid is, let alone what it does - this includes most doctors I've seen. It took me until my last semester of college to be properly diagnosed and another full year to get to a specialist who could actually treat my disease. Most doctors laugh you out of the office when you explain the symptoms, but it's hard to blame them when they don't get more than a few hours of a reading assignment dedicated to the thyroid.

Your thyroid is sort of like the temperature regulator for your entire body - it literally controls your body temp and the temperature inside your individual cells - which effects things like metabolism (hence the reason I used to be able to take extremely high doses of pain killers, caffeine, and alcohol with little to no effect). It is a gland that effects the development of literally ever cell, so it can effect your heart, lungs, brain function, skin, blood, metabolism, digestion, etc. So the symptoms looks something this:

- Memory loss
- Slow response time (aka "Brain Fog")
- Acne
- Weight gain combined with the inability to lose weight
- Extreme persistant tiredness/exhaustian
- Heart Disease
- Anemia
- IBS
- Long lasting/frequent respiratory infections
- Brittle/dry nails, skin and hair
- Depression

Now most people look at that list and go "Yeah right. You're just a hypochondriac". But it actually all ties together. And what is unfortunate is that the estimates say that it's likely that only 1 in 10 people suffering with a thyroid disorder aren't even diagnosed (let alone given proper treatment).

I won't go into a ton of detail here, but I will recommend two of my favorite books if you want more info (and don't take my word for it - read what doctors & specialists have to say on it):

"Hypothyroidism: The Unsuspected Illness" (this one is particularly good and easy to read)


"Hypothyroidism Type 2: The Epidemic"

This, btw, is why I don't eat soy products if I can at all help it. I know I'll probably get flack for saying this, but soy is actually like a poison - it shuts down your thyroid little by little (this, btw, is why you're not supposed to feed babies or children soy - it shuts their thyroids down and keeps them from developing normally). Any health benefits that come from it are severely out-weighed in my opinion.

In any case, if you want to help support Thyroid Awareness, or just get a cool t-shirt, visit Wings of Hope Thyroid Awareness - they're an awesome non-profit that is trying to help support more research on this neglected and incredibly important part of the body!

Complex or Bold?

I was out shopping with my sister yesterday (btw, someone needs to remind me again why we have no Nordstrom in Santa Clarita - it's not right) and we decided to stock up on more whole bean decaf coffee. First of all, some of you may be surprised that I drink decaf but it is entirely due to the Hashimoto's Disease and my body getting proper treatment finally (this is a long story btw). Needless to say, FINALLY, a little goes a long way with caffeine and even alcohol.

ANYWAY...

We went into Peet's Coffee and discovered it was Founder's Day. Which means we got one pound of coffee for the price of a 1/2 pound. :-) Bonus! But what caught my eye was these little buttons they were handing out for free with little coffee descriptives on them. I thought they were so funny and had to grab a couple. My favorites were "Complex" and "Bold".

There's not a whole lot of point to this story - I just thought it was hilariously funny and sort of quirky that people are walking around with little buttons that say "complex" or "bold" on them. I think there was even one that said "Earthy". I couldn't decide which one fit me better though. Votes?

Have a happy Tuesday!

~Brienne

Leap Day Wedding!

I was so honored to be a part of my friend Liz's special Leap Day Wedding! Her and her husband Alex are adorable and have super duper adorable kids (if you follow my blog, you've seen them - their little girl Izabel just turned 1 not that long ago). They chose to have a cute ceremony with just their closest family and friends. I just think it's so awesome that they got married on Leap Day! ;-) They get to be newlyweds for a LONG time.

Check out the rice action!



And my favorite shot from the day! Isn't Liz gorgeous? And Alex is pretty good too!



I guess I'll have to wait another 4 years for a cool one like this! Congrats!